


No Survivors

by Bluewolf458



Category: The Sentinel (TV)
Genre: Gen, Sentinel Thursday
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-02
Updated: 2020-01-02
Packaged: 2021-02-24 20:14:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 774
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22083847
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bluewolf458/pseuds/Bluewolf458
Summary: 852 Prospect has been destroyed… with no survivors
Relationships: Jim Ellison & Blair Sandburg
Comments: 8
Kudos: 35





	No Survivors

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Sentinel Thursday prompt 'breath' or 'breathless'

No Survivors

by Bluewolf

Blair caught his breath as he read the newspaper article. Then he sat, unbreathing, for a minute before he began to breathe steadily - in-two-three-four, out-two-three-four, in...

He sat, just breathing steadily, for fully two minutes before he returned his attention to the article.

'An explosion destroyed the building at 852 Prospect in Cascade late last night. Several bodies were recovered after the resulting fire was extinguished. No survivors were found.

'The dead are all believed to have been killed by the explosion; none by the fire.'

Blair took one deep breath as he put the paper down, the rest of the very short article unread. What did the details matter? There were no survivors.

Jim was dead.

Blair hesitated for a moment. Should he phone Simon, see if the Captain had any additional information?

No, possibly not. Even if Simon did have any additional information... Simon, he was sure, had never forgiven him for accepting a lecturing position in the University of Chicago instead of the position Simon had offered him in the Cascade PD. It wasn't so much that he didn't want to accept Simon's offer; he did. He had simply been aware that his claim of 'fraud' would affect his credibility in court if he ever had to give evidence; and as a detective he would have had to give evidence.

So he had given Megan all his sentinel notes, explained his reasoning and apologized to Jim, and left - but without telling him where he was going.

All right, maybe he could phone Megan... or maybe not. She had his cell phone number; she could phone him. There was, after all, no way that she could know that something about an explosion in a residential block in Cascade would merit even a small mention in a Chicago paper! Surely she would think to let him know!

But there was no phone call.

***

Several days passed. Blair resolutely gritted his teeth and carried on with his lecturing duties, determined that nobody would see that something was upsetting him.

And then one evening, just after he arrived home, there was a knock on his door. That in itself was unusual; apart from the University office, nobody knew his address.

Probably a marketeer, he thought as he headed for the door. It wouldn't take him long to get rid of his visitor if he was right!

He opened the door - to be faced by a tall figure carrying a suitcase.

It was the suitcase he registered first; yes - a door to door salesman.

"Hello, Chief - can I come in?"

That voice! Blair looked at the man's face, and he caught his breath.

"Jim?"

Almost automatically he stepped back to allow Jim to enter, and equally automatically he closed the door.

"Jim? But... but you're dead!"

Jim dropped the suitcase and caught Blair in a warm, comforting hug. "You heard?"

"There was a short paragraph in our paper. It said... it said 'no survivors'."

"I was lucky. I got home from work, but something made me uneasy. So I took a few minutes to shove a couple of changes of clothes into a suitcase as well as all the money that was in the house, a folder with my important papers and one or two things I didn't want to lose, and slipped out the back way. I walked a couple of blocks then caught a bus. Went to Simon's. Then on the late news there was a report that 852 Prospect had been destroyed by an explosion.

"I stayed at Simon's next day when he went in to work. Joel told him that the signs were that the basement area had been pretty well packed with explosive. So Simon decided not to tell anyone except Chief Warren that I'd been at his house.

"We'd arrested a top crook the day before; we think one of his gang had the knowledge of explosives... I'll have to go back to give evidence against the guy we caught, but it's a pretty safe bet that his gang will still be out for my blood.

"I'd tracked down where you were. Simon knows the police chief here and arranged for me to get a job, as James Ellis. So here I am... hoping that you can give me a bed for a few days - maybe a week? - while I look for an apartment."

Their hug had lasted all the time Jim was talking. He took one step backward, still holding Blair's arms.

Blair drew one more long, shuddering breath. "A week? Sure. A week that lasts 1460 or so days. After that we can renegotiate."


End file.
